2012 Bell Award recipients

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The WLKY Spirit of Louisville Foundation has named 10 adults and two teenagers as this year's recipients of Bell Awards. The awards, presented for 35 years, recognize volunteers for their service and for showing the "spirit of Louisville." The recipients will be honored at a banquet at the Galt House Hotel on Oct. 11, and the event will be televised from 8 to 9 p.m. Oct. 20 on WLKY-32.

ED ARMENTO

Age: 68

Volunteer work: Volunteer with the Louisville Armed Forces Committee, Patriots Peace Memorial Committee and the Marine Corps Coordinating Council of Kentucky. He helped raise more than $275,000 for college-bound students and wounded Marines and their families. He served as security coordinator for the 2011 Congressional Medal of Honor Society National Convention held in Louisville.

Occupation: Retired from the FBI

Neighborhood: Prospect

BERNIE BLOCK

Age: 75

Volunteer work: A mental health advocate who has volunteered tirelessly on behalf of mental wellness. He is a member of the Kentucky Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has served as chairman of the Seven Counties Services Board of Directors and is an active volunteer at Wellspring. He successfully lobbied lawmakers to provide $500,000 a year to fund the David J. Block Crisis Stabilization Center, an emergency mental health residence opened in memory of his late son who suffered from mental illness.

Occupation: Retired executive at The Courier-Journal & Louisville Times Co.

Neighborhood: Indian Springs

RUTH FRENCH

Age: 70

Volunteer work: To help improve her Shawnee neighborhood, she donated a vacant lot for a neighborhood garden. She also helped open the Shawnee Christian Community Health Clinic by donating the space, securing the funding and interviewing medical professionals to serve in the facility. She is active with the Neighborhood Block Watch Committee, Immaculate Heart of Mary Church and is a Eucharistic minister for the sick and shut-ins.